Kids, pastors, politicians: big Seattle gun violence march

Kids, seniors, Seattle-area politicians and a bevy of ministers, rabbis and imams marched against gun violence in Seattle on Sunday, defying the National Rifle Association;’s smug prediction that it has erected a firewall against firearms registration and safety legislation that will prevent passage through Congress and state legislatures this year.

The Rev. Sandy Brown from Seattle First United Methodist Church urged the crowd of 800 to look up to the “12th Man” flag flying from the Space Needle in honor of the Seattle Seahawks’ fervent fan base that helped carry the NFL team to unexpected success.

“Can we be the 12th man, the 12th woman, the 12th child for sensible gun control in Washington?” asked Brown.

“Yes we can,” the crowd shouted, borrowing the theme from President Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Holmes

The rally and march followed by two days a Seattle City Club forum at which incoming Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom, a past sponsor of gun legislation, predicted there will be no assault weapons ban passed in Olympia this year. Tom signaled that gun safety will not be a high priority of his coalition of 24 Republicans and two dissident Democrats.

But, argued leading marchers Sunday, the assassinations of 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut has changed the landscape.

“The key is to keep building, that it won’t be like the Occupy movement,” said Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes.

The Very Rev. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral, added: “I have a sense this has more momentum than ever before. I kind of feel critical mass. This is a cross section of humanity — people were, of course, kind of occupied in Seattle today — but this is not a fringe thing. It is mainstream.”

It was also very Seattle. Speakers quoted Gandhi, the philosopher Camus, St. Francis of Assisi, and Holy Scripture. The crowd sang “Amazing Grace.” Those fixtures of Northwest protest gatherings, the Raging Grannies — they last delivered a serenade at the coal pork hearing — sang roughly rhyming lyrics. “(Kids) need role models who . . . Show the right thing to do.” The NRA was denounced in song: “It’s influence is polluting.”

Murray

Why did marchers turn out on a cold day, minutes after the Atlanta Falcons kicked that winning field goal?

“This is the reason,” said marcher Ann Bristol, with a hand on the shoulder of her granddaughter Sophia Beltman.

State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who fought 17 years for gay rights and marriage equality legislation, warned the crowd that it must show staying power. He predicted “movement in Olympia” this year, but added: “It’s going to take time and a lot of work.”

“We need to not stereotype the rural legislators who are against us: We need to change minds,” Murray added.

Murray has called for an assault weapons ban. A fellow candidate for Seattle Mayor, City Councilman Tim Burgess, has put firearms safety on the city’s “wish” list in the Legislature. “We’re marching today because we believe that our legislators in Olympia, starting tomorrow, have the power to take action and adopt reasonable gun safety laws that will protect the people of Washington,” said Burgess.

Mayor Mike McGinn touted the city’s upcoming (on January 26th) gun buyback programs, and said the Legislature should allow cities to enact gun-free zones. (The city tried this with its parks, but quickly lost in court.) “I don’t have the authority to say, ‘We don’t want guns at the Seattle Center,” McGinn said.

Carlyle

Sen. Tom has taken to baiting the state’s largest city, saying his coalition in the State Senate will yield a less “Seattle-centric” approach to government.

State Rep,. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, was scornful of the idea that support for curbing gun violence is geographically or politically restrictive.

“Curbing societal violence couldn’t be more American,” said Carlyle. “It is less urban-rural, or red-blue or Republican-Democrat than it is connected to the deeper reality of providing meaningful public safety to all Americans.”

Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association, drew a bead on the NRA’s proposal to have an armed guard in every schools, or as she put it “the staggeringly misguided ideas about filling our schools with firearms.” Two Republican state House members have said they will introduce such a proposal when the Legislature convenes. “Guns have no place in our schools,” Lindquist declared.

Vice President Joe Biden will unveil on Tuesday what is expected to be a package of gun safety measures, proposals for expanded mental health coverage, and recommendations on video game and television violence. On Friday, Biden said: “We have a very narrow window.”

And, on Sunday, Rev. Brown delivered a reminder on how time yields to intertia — even in the aftermath of mass assasinations.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn

“After Columbine, we were going to do something,” he said. “After Virginia Tech, we were going to do something. After Wisconsin, we were going to do something. After Aurora, Colorado, we were going to do something. Then these children in Connecticut were killed . . . We, all of us, failed those kids.”

The march and rally Sunday were sponsored by Washington Ceasefire, with cosponsorship by church groups.